Havasupai water tested after flood

St. Mary’s Food Bank provides 30,000 bottles of water for reservation

The American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter set up cots and unpacked blankets about 6 p.m. Wednesday inside a multipurpose building of the Hualapai Tribe’s administrative offices in Peach Springs, Ariz.

Water donations are accepted at St. Mary’s Food Bank locations at 2831 N. 31st Ave., Phoenix ; 13050 W. Elm St., Surprise; and at all Goodwill locations in the Valley.

Monetary donations can be made at firstfoodbank.org. Every $2 pledge will enable the Food Bank to purchase a case of water.

By Cecilia ChanWed Jul 31, 2013 10:00 PM

Officials on Wednesday were testing the water on the Havasupai Reservation in northern Arizona to ensure it is suitable for drinking following a flash flood last week.

Between 400 and 600 people who live in Supai on the reservationhave been without water or sewer service since Saturday, when a deluge hit the remote area of the western Grand Canyon.

A severe rainstorm on the plateau caused Havasu Creek to rise more than 15 feet above the normal flow and to flood Supai and the downstream campground areas, a state official said.

The Tribal Council declared a temporary state of emergency Wednesday, said Wendy Smith-Reeve, director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management.

“This affords them the resources they need to address the problem,” she said. “At this time, I am unaware of additional resource needs that are not being met.”

Besides testing the water, crews also are clearing the sewer system in Supai “to make sure it doesn’t flood again when we turn the water on,” said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Darling was unsure how long it would take to determine if the water was safe to drink.

“We are trying to help the Havasupai Tribe and get them back to their way of life as soon as possible,” Darling said.

Tribal Chairman Don Watahomigie and Vice Chairman Matthew Putesoy could not be reached for comment.

The American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter and St. Mary’s Food Bank pitched in with resources to help tribal members.

The Red Cross opened a shelter Wednesday afternoon for residents of Supai, an isolated community on the reservation. The shelter is at the Hualapai Tribal Administration Multi-Purpose Building, 470 Hualapai Way in Peach Springs.

Darling said there were no mandatory evacuations.

“They are using community health representatives to identify members who want to leave the Canyon,” she said.

About 30 evacuees had registered to stay at the shelter and more were expected, said Trudy Thompson Rice, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

“People will stay in their homes as long as they can, and if there is no fresh water or safe water, they realize they will have to evacuate,” Thompson Rice said. “We were told(by tribal emergency-management officials)to be ready for as many as 600, and we are certainly ready for that.”

St. Mary’s trucked more than 30,000 bottles of drinking water to the reservation on Wednesday morning. The truck made the six-hour trip to Fredonia, where it was then taken by helicopter to Supai. The only other way to reach the village is via foot or pack animal on an 8-mile trail.

“The water that will get there today(Wednesday)will last them a week or so,” said Jerry Brown, a St. Mary’s Food Bank spokesman.

Darling said Apache County in northeast Arizona has donated up to 7,000 sandbags that are expected to arrive at Supai today.

Officials also are working to bring portable toilets to the village, she said.

Brown said the non-profit’s donation depleted its water supply by one-third, and the group is asking the public for bottled water and money to replenish its supply.

“We still have two months of hot weather, August and September,” Brown said, adding that 300 agencies such as the Salvation Army depend on St. Mary’s for food and water.

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